Jordan Harrison, the twentysomething author of “Kid-Simple,” might have an ongoing claim toward “kid,” but he has no demonstrable interest in simple.
Harrison is a postmodernist in training — a youthful, proudly unfettered scribe with a love of alliteration and verbal fancy and a disposition toward the clash of communicative notions at the expense of conventional dramatic ideas.
Harrison’s play “Kid-Simple,” revealingly subtitled “A Radio Play in the Flesh” and full of live sound effects, started out at the Humana Festival, where the pretentious premiere production was so dismissable that the script was widely discredited.
Damon Kiely’s simpler, savvier, more grounded and infinitely more truthful Midwest premiere for the American Theatre Company is so much better — so inestimably better — than the original version that it invites reconsideration of the script’s hidden charms.
Those avant-gardists consistently irritated by the American theater’s ongoing, if oft-undeclared, love of realism now will here find some soothing relief. And everyone else? “Kid-Simple” is halfway to being a decent play before it peters out.
The script reminds you of one of those shows where the director spent all his rehearsal time obsessing about the first act before knocking out the second in a panicked single night.
The densely written “Kid-Simple” is the tale of a teenage inventor named Moll (played here in spunky fashion by the terrific Gwendolyn Whiteside) who comes up with a gadget called the “Third Ear.” This allows the listener to hear the otherwise inaudible — the sound, say, of dust settling or a heart breaking.
Sad to recount, young Moll then has her heart smashed to smithereens by a bit o’ boy-fungus named Garth (Matthew Brumlow, in decently dastardly form) who seduces poor Moll just so he can steal her machine. Moll, reborn as a lively protofeminist, then sets out to get her revenge on this mutating mercenary.
Up to that point, “Kid-Simple” is fun, involving, progressive and highly entertaining. But to beat back the mercenary (a.k.a. evil), Moll decides she needs a male virgin to sacrifice. And thereafter, the show loses its way.
It’s not the fault of the production — Joshua Holden makes a terrific virgin-nerd. The play just becomes wearisome because the tension dissipates.
Part of the problem is that Harrison has so much in play all at once. There’s a “Rocky Horror”-style narrator, here rendered in cheerily over-the-top fashion by Suzanne Petri. There are bits of classic radio drama interwoven into Moll’s tale. Her parents — refugees from the 1950s — show up from time to time. It’s all too much for the thin overall narrative to stand.
Harrison is a skilled writer, no question. To some, “Kid Simple” will feel like refreshing new juice. And Kiely’s lucid direction is exactly the right counterpoint for this playwright.
But this play — drafted rather than crafted — is a mess. It’s a mess indicative of talent, but a mess nonetheless.
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“Kid-Simple”
When: Through March 20
Where: American Theatre Company, 1909 W. Byron St.
Running time: 90 minutes
Tickets: $25-$30 at 773-929-1031
